With an opposing team eager to make a statement and an expected over-capacity crowd, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team plays its 2015 road and Southern Conference opener today against Samford in Birmingham, Ala.
After a pair of home games against now top-ranked Jacksonville State and NCAA Division II member Mars Hill, UTC's 10th-ranked Mocs will test a Bulldogs team that has flashed a potent offense and an opportunistic defense in wins over Central Arkansas and Florida A&M.
The Bulldogs won the 2013 meeting in Birmingham 17-14 in overtime. The Mocs would have won the conference outright with a win but had to settle for a three-way tie with Samford and Furman. That was the last SoCon loss for UTC, which won at home against Samford in its undefeated league run last year.
Kickoff today is set for 3:30 p.m. EDT at Seibert Stadium. The game can be seen on the American Sports Network - available locally on ThisTV - as well as the SoCon Digital Network.
For a number of Mocs, this is their first college road trip, but UTC was 8-6 away from home the last two seasons, including games at Football Bowl Subdivision schools.
"We just approach it as a business trip," quarterback Jacob Huesman said. "I think the younger guys can watch the older guys who are used to it and learn a little something about how to carry yourself on an away trip.
"You have to elevate the focus that much more."
Road games are completely different from the Football Championship Subdivision level to the FBS. FBS schools can send their players to hotels the night before home games to get away from the outside environment, so the process of an away game isn't that much different for programs such as Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee.
At the FCS level, only the away games are treated as opportunities for a team to get away from outside influences. The players are together from the time they board the bus (or plane) to head to the destination to the time they arrive back home after the game.
"Sometimes at our level, playing on the road is more advantageous than playing at home," UTC coach Russ Huesman said. "Phones are off; it's a relaxing bus ride; but we'll be playing on a different field."
The environment will be very Samford-heavy this afternoon. The campus is having a "Parents Day" in addition to the game between the Mocs and the Bulldogs, who are one of the top teams receiving votes in both the FCS coaches' poll and the STATS poll, so the stadium - which seats 6,700 at capacity - is expected to have as many as 8,000 today.
"We just want to go out and dominate," UTC senior defensive lineman Toyvian Brand said. "We want to win every game, but these types of games, you want to be the best player you can be for your team - especially on defense. We just want to have fun and dominate. We've put a lot of time with preparation; we've given good effort in practice; we've got some good reps in; we've watched a lot of film.
"The hurt from our last visit is still there. That's still with us, so we're going to go out, compete and have fun."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.